


Tachycardia

by LittleLinor



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13167471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor
Summary: Maybe it was destiny after all.(An extension on the events of gz 12)





	Tachycardia

**Author's Note:**

> I had like three different fics in my head related to this episode, but this was the most important, so I wrote it despite the fever.  
> Merry Christmas???

Two days after Christmas, Kouji Ibuki's phone vibrates.  
He looks up from where he'd been spacing out (seriously, what was he _doing_ , there's work to be done even if he's been told to get some bed rest) and blearily reaches for it.  
His heart gives a little jolt when he sees Chrono's name, and that brings too many conflicted memories and feelings; he quickly opens the text.  
 **How are you holding up? Is your heart okay?**  
 **Mamoru Anjou and Katsuragi brought me to see a doctor yesterday. She said there wouldn't be any lasting serious damage.**  
The truth, if he's completely honest, is more along the lines of 'dragged'. Katsuragi had stalled him by showing up and nagging at him to go until Mamoru could get there with his car and more or less force him into it. _How_ they learned about that part of the previous night's events he's not entirely sure; he suspects Chrono talked about it to his former teammates to shake off his nervousness and Tokoha Anjou spread the word.  
The real question is how both sides of his groups of acquaintances and friends came to communicate this much. It's not a bad thought, but it is slightly unsettling.  
 **… “serious”.**  
He hesitates. Part of him wants to just pretend everything is fine, but he can't lie to Chrono. He can't.  
 **She said she couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be some minor issues. But the odds are in favour of full recovery.**  
A few minutes pass by. Ibuki stands and nervously busies himself with taking out some coffee, before remembering he's been told not to have any for a few weeks.  
Sighing, he switches to green tea, but puts everything back down as his phone vibrates again.  
 **… better than nothing, I guess.**  
And then:  
 **Hey. Can I talk to you?**  
 **You are.**  
 **I mean in person.**  
While Ibuki's still hesitating, he adds:  
 **There's something I wanna talk about, but it's too complicated to do it via text.**  
 **… of course.**  
Another moment of silence again.  
 **Is ramen good? Tokoha and Kumi introduced me to a nice place.**  
 **It's fine.**

They meet up the next day, early in the evening—or rather, at that time of the day that's barely out of late afternoon but that in this late December brings almost complete darkness already.  
Ibuki's early. To his surprise, Chrono is even more than him.  
Maybe his chronic tardiness doesn't apply when sleeping isn't involved.  
Chrono smiles brightly as he sees him, as if _relieved_ , and Ibuki can't help but smile back, just a little, taking one of his hands out of his pocket to answer Chrono's wave with a tiny hand sign of his own, but halfway through his throat seizes up (it's the cold, _it's the cold_ ) and he brings it up to his mouth to cough instead.  
Immediately, Chrono frowns, and in less than two seconds he's closed the distance between them and taken hold of Ibuki's upper arm, solid and reassuring.  
“Hey, are you okay—shit, are you even supposed to be out? I should've ordered takeout and come to your place instead…”  
“I'm fine. It's just the cold.”  
“ _Are_ you supposed to be out?”  
“… I'm supposed to rest, but I didn't go to work for the last three days. I needed some air anyway.”  
“… sorry. I should've thought to ask—I'm an idiot—”  
“Chrono.”  
He stops, and looks up at him, face still torn.  
“… I'm fine. Thank you for inviting me.”  
Chrono blushes. It's a good expression on him, he thinks absently.  
“… y-you're welcome. C'mon, let's go in, you'll be warmer inside.”

They go in. Chrono gets them a booth seat rather than the taller stools, and somehow they manage to make what almost passes for small talk until they get their food. Chrono's bowl, a fragrant broth of mushrooms and pork, reaches Ibuki's nose and almost makes him regret his blander choice; he wants to try it out, but asking to taste is a level of forward he wouldn't dream of even when drunk.  
They start eating in silence, just comforted by each other's presence.  
“… I've been thinking.”  
Ibuki looks up. Chrono's half finished with his noodles, and is absently toying with the rest of them, not looking at him.  
“Hm?”  
“About the other day. What Gastille said.”  
Immediately, Ibuki tenses, his entire body taunt with refusal.  
“The nonsensical ravings of a fanatical madman.”  
Chrono chuckles, but he doesn't look up.  
“… I'm not so sure.”  
He doesn't answer. He doesn't know _what_ to answer, what he could say to comfort him and wipe the terrible, insidious idea from his mind.  
He knows all too well what it feels like to live with constant guilt. For Chrono to live like that too—the thought makes his stomach twist.  
“See, I…” Chrono continues after a few moments of silence. “Shion and Tokoha pointed out I'm not the one who created the gate in the first place, even if I'm the one who pushed it open. But I'm still the one who did, and—depending how you look at it, I think it could still be my fault. That it was created in the first place.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I…” his fingers tighten. “I've got good luck when cardfighting, but aside from that… you've _got_ to have noticed I bring misfortune around me, right?”  
Ibuki stays frozen. Chrono looks up, just for a fraction of second, and his smile is heartbreaking.  
“Think about it. My mom had me and then she died. My dad kinda went crazy trying to bring her back and _that_ gave Ryuzu the key he needed to create his gate—that's what I meant. Then I go there _once_ and I actually open it, and that—that put all of Cray in danger, got Chrono Dran stuck on earth for ten years, and that explosion hurt a lot of people too. Then Mikuru had to give up on a normal life to take care of me.”  
Ibuki's ears are static. The voices and subtle clinks of ceramic and glass and metal are both too much and too little to drown out the whiteness blacking out his senses.  
 _That's not true!_ the part of him that's still barely capable of coherent thought screams, but there's something in the way Chrono says it that chills him to the bone.  
“… I did get a feeling already back then… I couldn't _remember_ but somehow I already knew… little things kept happening and it made me uneasy… that's part of why I tried to keep to myself for so long… but then over time I got so numb I kinda forgot. And then I met _you_. And I started feeling alive again and met Tokoha and Shion and Kamui and Taiyou and everyone else, but…” He chuckles, derisive. “Well, see how _that_ went. You almost died, _twice_.” He bites his lip. “Three times, now. And the two first times were definitely for getting involved with me—and the third is related to the gate. It's _still_ something I caused, even if it was indirectly.”  
“That's not—”  
“Ryuzu almost killed you because you went to fight him for _me_.”  
He looks up as he says it, eyes piercing, and Ibuki can't find any rebuttal.  
“… it's not even just you. Look at Taiyou—if he hadn't been involved with me, he wouldn't have been recruited for Demise. And then Shion… Mamoru almost died too… it's just…” His fists tighten, pressed down on the table. “Even when I don't cause it directly… every time, people around me get hurt. The world gets put in danger—this is the _second time_ already. And all of it… basically all of it would've been avoided if I hadn't been born.”  
“Chrono—”  
“I'm not saying it to guilt trip myself,” he says, quietly, and Ibuki falls silent again. “But… I think I need to be aware of it. Ignoring it… ignoring it would just lead to disaster.”  
He falls silent. Across the table, Ibuki tightens his own fists, hidden from view, and tries his best to put his feelings into words, for once.  
“… even if you're right…”  
Chrono looks up at him.  
“Huh?”  
“Even if you're right… I wouldn't change it for the world. Danger may have befallen me, but you've still changed my life for the better. I don't regret meeting you.” He drives his thumb nail into his hand. “… I think your friends and aunt would say the same.”  
Chrono chuckles sadly, but there's a hint of a genuine smile on his lips, small and warm.  
“… thanks.”  
“It's your actions that determine who you are, not your luck.”  
“I _know_ , I'm not saying I'm a bad guy, just… just maybe him talking about destiny isn't complete bullshit after all. I'm just saying… we should be careful.”  
 _I would be careful regardless_ , he doesn't voice. There's no way he'll let anything happen to Chrono again. There's been too many close calls already.  
“I'll protect both you and this world,” he says, on impulse.  
Chrono stares at him, eyes wide, then breaks into a short burst of happy, almost silent laughter.  
“Hey, that's my line!”  
“I believe I'm still the oldest of both of us. I'm the one who should be responsible.”  
“Nu-uh. You can't tell me not to treat you like an old man and then say this. We're in this _together_ , Ibuki.”  
Ibuki's neck feels hot.  
“… together, huh?”  
“Yeah.” He looks away for a second or two, then reaches for his bowl again, swallowing a mouthful of noodles before leaving the bowl alone again, hands fidgeting with its curves. “I've been thinking… maybe that's destiny too.”  
“Huh?”  
“Us. Don't get me wrong,” he says more agitatedly, waving his hands in front of him. “I just mean—if I'm related to Gyze by destiny, maybe Messiah sent you to me to help stop that? You know? Cause every time we've fought together so far we managed to stop the biggest disasters. So maybe they brought us together on purpose.”  
“It—it makes sense,” Ibuki answers, his heart faltering again. Maybe Chrono was right and he should have stayed home after all.  
Chrono smiles. His chest tightens even more, and he hides a small cough in his hand as he picks up his spoon, taking another sip.  
“… I just don't like how it drags you into all this,” Chrono says quietly.  
For once, Ibuki has a ready, hesitation-less reply.  
“Don't worry about it. I didn't wait to meet you to get myself hurt. Fighting with a purpose is much preferable.” And fighting _together_ makes him happy in ways that he can't quite voice.  
“… is that the thing you want to wait three years to tell me?”  
“… yes.” He tightens his hands again. “Chrono, I'm sorry…”  
“It's okay. I can wait. I've already waited three years, what's three more at this point?”  
Ibuki chuckles.  
“You're more patient than I am.”  
“Well… I understand not wanting to be the only one drunk,” he says, and Ibuki almost winces. Why, _why_ can this kid read him like an open book? “You gotta promise me something, though.”  
“… what is it?”  
“You have to be there. You gotta be here and alive to tell me. I don't wanna hear it from anyone else.”  
His breath grows short.  
“I—”  
Chrono's eyes are firm, and he almost wants to curl up. Whether to hide from them or to hide _in_ them, he's not sure.  
“… I will try my best. I promise.”  
Chrono smiles, and extends his hand.  
“So. Together?”  
Somehow, he finds himself smiling back.  
He takes Chrono's hand.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Relapse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13190457) by [LittleLinor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/pseuds/LittleLinor)




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